An international conference to support Ukraine has agreed to provide $66 billion to help Kiev rebuild the conflict-torn country.
"At today's conference, we can announce 60 billion euros ($66 billion) in aid for Ukraine," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who chaired the international conference on Ukraine support, said at the closing session in London on June 22.
He said the pledged aid was intended to help Ukraine rebuild the country in the short and medium term.
"This provides us with a fairly solid medium-term source of support, providing the macroeconomic stability that Ukraine needs," Secretary Cleverly said, adding that the reconstruction effort focused on tapping the huge potential of the private sector.
Rescue workers at the scene of a collapsed apartment building in Dnipro, central Ukraine, on January 16. Photo: AFP
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told delegates at the conference in London that Kiev had "started rebuilding Ukraine this year, instead of waiting for the end of the fighting", and thanked foreign donors for providing financial support to the country.
“We are getting closer to the $14.1 billion budget needed,” he said, referring to the World Bank’s estimate of Kiev’s immediate reconstruction needs. In the medium term, Ukraine will need more than $400 billion to restore its economy.
"We need to perfect the compensation mechanism that would allow the use of frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine," Prime Minister Shmygal called.
One of the main goals of the international conference in the UK was to engage the private sector by creating a mechanism to guarantee investment in Ukraine. Nearly 500 companies from 42 countries have pledged to join the reconstruction effort in Ukraine.
The bulk of the $66 billion comes from a nearly $55 billion aid package announced by the European Union (EU) the night before the summit, with disbursements planned through 2027. The US also announced $1.3 billion in aid, focused on Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
Thanh Tam (According to AFP )
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